Contemporary Feminist Theologies

This book explores the issues of power, authority and love with current concerns in the Christian theological exploration of feminism and feminist theology. It addresses its key themes in three parts: (1) power deals with feminist critiques, (2) authority unpacks feminist methodologies, and (3) love explores feminist ethics. Covering issues such as embodiment, intersectionality, liberation theologies, historiography, queer approaches to hermeneutics, philosophy and more, it provides a multi-layered and nuanced appreciation of this important area of theological thought and practice. This volume will be vital reading for scholars of feminist theology, queer theology, process theology, practical theology, religion and gender.

Rethinking the Christian faith from a woman's perspective has been an important advancement in modern theology. This book introduces the methods, ideas, and contributions of recent feminist theology to readers encountering the subject for the first time. Natalie Watson explores the historical background of feminist theology, discusses the value of reading Scripture from a feminist perspective, and shows how this approach can offer a critical, creative, and constructive rereading of the Christian tradition. She also sets forth some fresh ideas encouraging people to see feminism not as a threat to the church but as a challenging perspective that actually enhances its life in today's world. An extensive annotated bibliography invites readers to further study, presenting a wealth of books on feminist theology by many well-known authors. Ideal for classroom instruction, discussion groups, and personal study, this volume is an exceptional, user-friendly guide to contemporary feminist thought.

Lucy Tatman identifies the events and ideas that influenced the formation of a North american feminist paradigm. She explores the components of this paradigm, particularly the way in which they affect the understanding of knowledge. She then examines the representation of these elements in the theologies of three prominent feminist theologians in North America: Rosemary Radford Ruether, Carter Heyward, and Sallie McFague. From her discussion of these scholars, she proposes that a responsible feminist practice of epistemology requires participatory discernment.

This work lies at the critical juncture of feminism and religious studies and participates in the vibrant tradition of the feminist anthology. It is part of a broad feminist discourse that continues to grow less monolithic and more varied in material, method and style each year. The papers are divided into three main sections: the representation of women in sacred texts and theologies, the fundamental need to recover the heritage of women and to return to women their history, and the coming together of canonical texts with contemporary feminist theory in order to address philosophical and theological problems.

This book explores the development of Christology by major white North American feminist theologians, placing the Christologies of Rosemary Radford Ruether, Carter Heyward, Patricia Wilson-Kastner, and Marjorie Suchocki within the context of their overall theologies. Wondra further examines the meaning and importance of women's experience in feminist theology. This work is self-consciously located at the juncture of contemporary theology and contemporary feminist theory, and uses a conversational method to examine proposals in Christology that are aspects of more comprehensive/systematic feminist constructive theologies. Contents: Preface; Introduction; PART I: THE FEMINIST CHRISTOLOGICAL PROBLEM. Toward an Adequate Feminist Christology: Methodology. PART II: THE RELATION OF WOMEN'S EXPERIENCE TO CHRISTOLOGY. The Construction of Women's Experience in Feminist Theory and Theology; Resistance and Transformation as Religious Experience; The Relation of Women's Experience to Christology. PART III: TOWARD CONTEMPORARY FEMINIST CHRISTOLOGY. The Paradigmatic and Prophetic Christ; The Decisive Representation of Self-Giving Love; The Revelation of God to Us; Christ, Mutuality, and Justice; Wisdom-Logos Christology in Feminist Perspective; The Re-presentation of Renaissance and Transformation; Bibliography; Index.

Providing a tool for all who wish to learn about the growing fields of womanist, mujerista, Asian feminist, and white Euroamerican feminist studies in religion, this dictionary furnishes a pluralistic approach to feminist theologies, guiding readers who are interested in all areas of Christian theology as they relate to feminism.

This book addresses crucial issues that postmodern theory has raised for feminism and for feminist theology in particular. Postmodern critiques of metaphysics question whether feminism is ultimately foundationalist and essentialist, attributing an essential nature to "woman" and substituting a new metaphysical theory in place of the patriarchal foundationalism of Western thought. Marta Frascati-Lochhead develops this critique of metaphysics through a reading of the Italian philosopher, Gianni Vattimo. She shows how, through his interpretation of Nietzsche and Heidegger, Vattimo characterizes the violence of metaphysical thought and concludes that, for emancipatory thought today, "nihilism" is our "sole opportunity." Through a comparison of Vattimo and Derrida on the question of ontological difference, and with reference to Donna Haraway's feminist analysis of cyborg culture, the author demonstrates how Vattimo's perspective might inform an understanding of sexual difference. Drawing on the connection that Vattimo makes between the dissolution of metaphysics in our time and the Christian understanding of kenosis, the self-emptying of God in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, Frascati-Lochhead examines contemporary feminist theology in order to identify the kenotic movement in its thought. With specific reference to the works of Catherine Keller, Rebecca Chopp, Sallie McFague, and Rosemary Radford Ruether, she shows how contemporary feminist theology belongs to the metaphysical tradition that it would overcome while, at the same time, it moves in an emancipatory, kenotic direction.